The interim Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the five months ended 30 November 2025 were released by the Treasury today. The November results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2025 (HYEFU 2025), published on 16 December 2025, and the results for the same period for the previous year.

The key fiscal indicators for the five months ended 30 November 2025 were overall favourable compared to the forecast. The Government’s main operating indicator, the operating balance before gains and losses excluding ACC (OBEGALx), showed a deficit of $5.6 billion. This deficit was $1.1 billion smaller than forecast. Net core Crown debt was lower than forecast by $0.9 billion at $183.1 billion, or 41.6% of GDP.

Core Crown tax revenue, at $49.1 billion, was $0.2 billion (0.4%) lower than forecast. Corporate tax and GST tax revenue was $0.3 billion (4.9%) and $0.2 billion (1.2%) lower-than-forecast, respectively. This was partially offset by other individual’s tax revenue which came in $0.2 billion (4.6%) higher than forecast.

Core Crown expenses, at $59.8 billion, were $0.9 billion (1.4%) below forecast. The lower-than expected spending was distributed across several areas including core government services, environmental protection and health. Most of this variance is expected to be timing in nature and unwind over the coming months.

The operating balance before gains and losses excluding ACC (OBEGALx) was a deficit of $5.6 billion, $1.1 billion less than the forecast deficit. The variance was the result of the core Crown revenue and expenses variances discussed above, along with the results of State-owned Enterprises and Crown entities (excluding ACC) which came in slightly stronger than forecast.

The operating balance was a surplus of $3.5 billion compared to a forecast deficit of $0.2 billion. This $3.7 billion favourable variance was driven by a combination of the $1.1 billion OBEGAL variance along with net gains on financial instruments and non-financial instruments which were stronger-than-forecast by $0.7 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively.

The core Crown residual cash deficit of $1.6 billion was $0.6 billion smaller than forecast, largely due to the lower-than-forecast net purchase of investments ($0.4 billion lower than forecast) and net purchase of physical and intangible assets ($0.3 billion lower than forecast).

Net core Crown debt at $183.1 billion (41.6% of GDP) was $0.9 billion lower than forecast. This favourable variance was primarily a result of the lower-than-forecast core Crown residual cash deficit of $0.6 billion as discussed above.

Gross debt at $221.1 billion (50.3% of GDP) was $0.8 billion higher than forecast. This variance was largely timing in nature owing to unsettled trades at 30 November 2025 of $0.6 billion which were settled shortly after the month-end. In addition, higher-than-forecast cross currency derivatives in loss of $0.2 billion contributed to the variance.

Net worth attributable to the Crown at $182.8 billion (41.6% of GDP), was $3.7 billion higher than forecast. This favourable variance largely reflects operating balance results discussed previously.

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